Early life

Riff Raff is a rapper who was born Horst Simco in Houston, Texas, on January 29, 1982 to parents Anita Simco, a maid, and Ronald Simco, a Vietnam War veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder who worked various jobs including being a police officer and a manager at Walmart.[1][10] His mother grew up in Ohio, descending from a family of German and Lithuanian Jews that includes several survivors, and victims, of the Holocaust.[11] Riff Raff was the second of four siblings. He and his family lived in a ranch house located in the northwest suburbs of Houston, in an area called Copperfield about 25 miles outside of downtown. Growing up he was obsessed with basketball, playing frequently with a group of kids in his neighborhood. By the middle of the decade, the Simcos had moved to a rental house in nearby Stone Creek, an area that had recently developed something of a gang problem. He attended Langham Creek High School, where he was shooting guard on his school's basketball team, before dropping out senior year.[1] Shortly after he obtained his GED.[11]

Soon after his parents divorced and around the same time Ronald, his father, was diagnosed with tonsil cancer and moved north to get out of the heat, landing in Duluth, Minnesota. For a period of time Riff Raff and his siblings were shuttled back and forth between there and Houston, where their mother remained. In 2001, he enrolled at Hibbing Community College in Hibbing, Minnesota, where he played on the basketball team and majored in liberal arts.[1][11] Ultimately, though, he felt out of place in Hibbing and lasted only a month on the basketball team. He dropped out in 2003 and moved back to Houston, where he found himself painting cars in the in-vogue "candy-colored" style and gradually beginning to build his new identity.[1] He would eventually settle in L.A. as he began to take his rapping career seriously.[4]

Musical career

2008–2009: Beginnings

Riff Raff started rapping in 2005, making homemade CDs of his rapping over other artists' beats, and passing them out at various malls in Houston. He credited his early influences being Texas veteran rappers Devin the Dude and Paul Wall.[11] Riff Raff took advantage of social media on Myspace, YouTube and WorldStarHipHop in late 2008, releasing songs, freestyle-videos, and sketch clips, which showcased his talent slapstick and performance art. He did this with the help of his first talent manager, DB da Boss, whose studio provided recording and video services. DB spoke with LA Weekly about the rapper, saying "He was very driven, very ambitious. You couldn't deny his work ethic," going on to say, "Underneath that shell is a very intelligent man." He looked up to Northside Houston rappers from label Swishahouse, who were blowing up around that time, including Paul Wall, Chamillionaire and Slim Thug. He began doing his hair up in braids popular among "Northsiders" like Slim Thug and shopping for bling at TV Jewelry, a store co-owned by Paul Wall and charismatic Vietnamese immigrant "TV" Johnny Dang, from whom Riff Raff also purchased gold grills. Like many other artists from Houston, Riff Raff also spent much of his time selling CDs at colleges and malls, occasionally alongside other local talent such at Fat Tony and Freestyle Bully.[1]

In an effort to get on television he went on many auditions, including for a part in a peanut butter commercial intended for a teenager. He and his friend also tried out for P. Diddy's Making the Band, to no avail. He was so determined to become famous that he flew to Atlanta to try out for MTV's reality show From G's to Gents. When he learned that he had made the cast for the program's second season, before taping had even begun, he immediately got a giant MTV logo tattooed on his neck and adjusted his stage name to "MTV Riff Raff". Though he was eliminated from the series on the second episode, he left an impression on viewers through his extravagant way of dressing and funny ad-libs.[1][12][13] Upon the season's debut in early 2009 appearance on the show would garner and immediate reaction to him, and catapulted his career.[1]

The same year actor, comedian and rapper Simon Rex noticed Riff Raff after being shown to him by notable producer The Alchemist. Rex contacted Riff Raff after watching one of his freestyle videos in which he revealed his phone number, and soon enough the two became friends and began recording as Riff Raff and Dirt Nasty.[1] The pair later formed a rap group Three Loco along with comedian Andy Milonakis, increasing Riff Raff's popularity by tapping into the two celebrities' fan bases.[1][13]

2010–2012: SODMG, Mad Decent, Various mixtapes

Beginning in 2011, Riff Raff begun to be managed by OG Ron C of Swishahouse fame, and moved to Los Angeles.[1] Riff Raff then started releasing more music videos that furthered the artist's internet fame. Those include songs such as "Jose Canseco",[14] and "Marc Jacobs".[15] Then in mid-2011, Riff Raff signed to Soulja Boy's label S.O.D. Money Gang Inc..[16] Weirdly Riff Raff had joined Soulja Boy's SODMG label before they'd even met in person; no paperwork was ever signed. However, Riff Raff still wore the imprint's chain, getting its logo tattooed, and again adjusting his moniker, this time to Riff Raff SODMG.[1] They would remain affiliated for around a year, but the label did not push or pay Riff Raff, which would result in him leaving the label. Soulja Boy publicly called Riff Raff a "cokehead" following their split.[1][17]

Some time before the official split Riff Raff affiliated with producers such as Diplo and Harry Fraud, as well as with Queens rapper Action Bronson. The music video he released for his collaboration with Fraud and Bronson, "Bird on a Wire," generated quite a hype and hit the one million plays-mark in roughly two months.[18] "Bird on a Wire" was listed as the 27th best song of 2012 by Complex Music.[19]

In early 2012 he would release music videos for the songs, "Larry Bird",[5] "Time"[20] and the Chief Keef collaboration "Cuz My Gear", among others.[21] In April 2012, Riff Raff also announced working with Diplo on a collaborative album tentatively titled Jody Highroller with confirmed guests Skrillex, Usher, Soulja Boy, Gucci Mane, Mystikal and Rusko.[22] In June 2012, Riff Raff released the Summer of Surf mixtape.[23] These events led into him officially signing with Diplo's label Mad Decent in June 2012.[24] The same year he released the album, The Golden Alien, independently in July.[25] It was followed by the release of the mixtape, Birth of an Icon, in August, which was listed by Stereogum as their "Mixtape of the Week."[26][27]

2013–present: Neon Icon

Following the release of his mixtape Hologram Panda with producer Dame Grease, Riff Raff told MTV that his upcoming Mad Decent second studio album would be titled Riff Raff, The Neon Icon, later shortened to Neon Icon.[28] In February 2013 he told Complex that his second studio album is due out some time during the third quarter of 2013.[29]

On June 25, 2013 he released a single titled "Dolce & Gabbana" , produced by DJ Carnage as the first single from Neon Icon, however two days later he announced that the song wouldn't be included on the album.[30][31][32] He was also featured on Far East Movement's single "The Illest" around the same time. Then on July 12, 2013 he released another non album single titled "Mr. Popular", and four days later released the music video for the song.[33][34] In August 2013, Riff Raff announced that he would be releasing a collaboration album with Action Bronson titled Galaxy Gladiators in 2014.[35][36]

On November 26, 2013 he released the first official single for Neon Icon titled "How To Be the Man" and produced by DJ Mustard.[37] That same month, Riff Raff told Rolling Stone in an interview that leading up to the album's release he would release various "left-over" tracks from the album's recording sessions[38] These notably included the Boi-1da produced "Real Boyz", featuring rappers OJ da Juiceman and Cap 1, as well as "Suckas Askin' Questions" with Lil Debbie and "Shoulda Won a Grammy" with Action Bronson.[39][40][41] In March 2014, prior to the albums release, Rolling Stone included the album on their list of "27 Must-Hear Albums of 2014".[42] On May 20, 2014, Riff Raff announced through his Twitter that after much delay, Neon Icon was scheduled for a June 24, 2014 release date.[43] The same day the official track listing for the album was revealed, which included previously announced collaborations Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Paul Wall, Mike Posner and Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors as well as Slim Thug.[44]

Spring Breakers controversy

On February 15, 2012 film director Harmony Korine contacted Riff Raff about appearing in an upcoming movie of his which would turn out to be Spring Breakers.[45] Once the details of the movie came out, there was speculation that the main character Alien was based on Riff Raff.[46] However according to James Franco, his character was based on the underground rap artist Dangeruss. He said "Of course Harmony and I looked at some of Riff Raff's videos as inspiration, but he was one of a number of people we looked at. I would say the biggest influence on the role was this local Florida rapper named Dangeruss. He's fairly unknown, but he was down there in the place, living the life, and he became the biggest model for me, and he's in the movie."[47]

After much back and forth between both camps about the issue, including Riff Raff appearing in a cameo for One Life to Live playing a character called "Jamie Franko".[48] Then during July 2013 Riff Raff announced he was suing the creators of Spring Breakers for 10 million dollars for sampling his life without his permission or a proper producer credit.[49] However, a search for court documents by LA Weekly in September 2013, resulted in no findings.[1]

Personal life

Riff Raff is known for his large amount of tattoos, which include the logos for WorldStarHipHop, MTV, NBA and BET.[11] He is a huge fan of The Simpsons, even getting a Bart Simpson chain and a tattoo of Bart holding test tubes that reads "The Freestyle Scientist" on his chest.[1] He also has a large gothic cross below his left shoulder, framed by a prayer rendered in cursive that reads, "Dear Jesus, Please Let Me In. Your Child, Horst Simco."[11]